Earth-Moon:
A Ted Hughes Website

Ted Hughes: Audio Books, Recordings

Last updated: 03-iii-2005

Note:

Ted Hughes was a very good reader of his own material and of the works of other poets. Several of his own collections of poems and stories for children and some of his publications for adults have in recent years been published as audiobooks. These are listed on this page. In addition, you can download indices for tapes where the publishers failed to provide any.

There have also, since the fifties, been recordings on cassette tape or vinyl. Most of these are no longer available and hard to find. Therefore, only a major few will be listed here. The order is roughly chronological.

[Cover images were included under the assumptions stated in the Copyrights section.]Publications intended or suitable for children have been marked with a small moon .

1971

Listening & Writing. Two Talks by Ted Hughes

This record reproduces two talks from Poetry in the Making, originally broadcast in the »Listening & Writing« series by the BBC. Both talks are slightly different from the printed versions. As part of the talks, Hughes reads »The Thought-Fox«, »Pike«, »View of a Pig«, »Bare Almond Trees« (D.H. Lawrence), and »Wodwo«.

Crow. Read by Ted Hughes.

Outstanding new recording. The two tapes for the first time include parts of the unpublished link narrative referred to in interviews and several works of criticism (Faas, Sagar, etc.).

Hughes has made some very interesting changes to the sequence of poems, including »Bride and Groom« (which appeared in Cave Birds and Moortown), thus re-establishing the link between Crow and other works.

The set is highly recommended for classroom use/students. The link narrative clarifies several poems, as well as their place and relationships within the sequence and within Ted Hughes's work as a whole.